By the time I came of age in the 1980s, Detroit was a boom town that had gone bust. Kids with big dreams in the Michigan college town where I grew up flocked to Chicago, not Detroit. I had cousins in Detroit, but aside from fleeting family gatherings, I did not spend time there. My mother's aunts and cousins had all moved to Detroit from Mississippi in the '40s, when the economy was white-hot, and stayed put during the city's long decline; not everyone had the same perseverance. I began to see the city anew in 2018, when I attended a National Association of Black Journalists Convention there. I ate great food, saw quirky art and felt an entrepreneurial vibe that did not exist on the East Coast. Best of all, I got to hang out with my cousins, who showed off the remarkable changes taking place downtown. But my cousins, who had lived in the city all their lives, also worried that gentrification would leave them behind and make them strangers in their own city. Over time, I began to understand their point of view. As I wrote in a opinion essay this week, they had reason to worry. I began dreaming and scheming. What if together, we bought a house in Detroit that could both improve a neighborhood and secure a place in the city for my cousins forever? Our elders had always counseled against doing business with family. What if we bucked that advice? What if our Black family members invested in one another's success, the same way that so many immigrant families do? Before I knew it, I owned a fixer-upper in Detroit with my cousin. The jury is still out about how wise this investment will prove to be, or whether it will bring us closer or push us apart. What is clear, however, is that the city looks different to me now. The investor in me celebrated the news of a new $3 billion health care-related project going up a mile away from our house. But the neighbor in me worried for the long-time Detroiters who fear having to foot the bill for tax abatements to billionaires and rising rents. This past fall, I followed community activists who are fighting for a bigger share of development dollars to flow to longtime residents through a unique process in Detroit mandated by a "community benefits" ordinance. Will they succeed? Will we? Wish us luck.
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Friday, January 5, 2024
Opinion Today: Why I bought a fixer-upper with my cousin in Detroit
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